The class is taking turns hosting ‘Aaron’ the class mascot, taking him on adventures. It is Little J’s turn, so Little J, Nanna, Big Cuz, and Old Dog take Aaron on Country to look for mica rock, and along the way they photograph the expedition. Distracted by the events of the day, Little J loses Aaron and the family enrols the help of Uncle Mick, a Search and Rescue officer, to return him.

Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience

Theme - GENRE

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.

The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.

Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:

• promote a positive attitude and team spirit through activities such as leading cheers, songs and dances
• bring good luck to a team or group.

Making a cloth mascot

Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in E5 stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the doll have.

Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with a calico/hessian doll template and have students decorate it as per their designs. Have students sew around the shape leaving a small section open to fill the doll with stuffing (shredded paper, cushion stuffing, etc.) and finish the sewing to seal the gap.

Invite students to create an example of promotional material, e.g. advertisement, poster, banner, sticker for the mascot doll who is the main character in a new animation. Refer to the Little J & Big Cuz Promotional trailer for ideas.

To design the advertisement/poster, students should include

1. title of the new production
2. name/s of the main character/s
3. image of the character in a setting from the production
4. two sentences describing what the production is about.

Students should develop and apply both the technical elements and the symbolic media elements (as covered this module’s Explain stage (Symbol)).

Once students have completed the mascot doll and the poster, they are to promote their production to the class in the media genre of an advertisement.